Refrigerator and door for a refrigerator

ABSTRACT

A refrigerator door including an outer wall and an inner wall interconnected along longitudinal edges thereof and including a closing element fixed on an upper horizontal edge of the outer and inner walls. The interconnected closing element and the outer and inner walls delimit an insulating inner space therebetween. At the upper edges the outer wall is longer than the inner wall with the closing element bridging the difference in length between the walls. The resulting structure forming a space for a control panel covered by the outer wall when the refrigerator door is closed.

The present invention relates to a refrigerating appliance, particularlythe door thereof.

Doors of refrigerating appliances are conventionally constructed from anouter wall, usually a metal sheet, which is cut from a roll to a lengthcorresponding with the height of the door to be produced and issubsequently bent at several places to respectively form the front plateof the door, lateral limbs adjoining longitudinal edges of the frontplate and inwardly bent straps adjoining the limbs, and an inner wall,which is formed by deep-drawing from flat plastics material and fastenedto the straps of the outer wall. The cavity formed between outer walland inner wall is closed by an upper closure element and a lower closureelement, which are respectively fastened to the transverse edges ofinner wall and outer wall, and is filled with an insulating foammaterial.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic part section through a first example of aconventional refrigerating appliance equipped with such a door. The body1 of the refrigerating appliance, against which the door 2 abuts,extends upwardly beyond the upper edge of the door, and a control panel3 is mounted on the body 1 above the door 2. The control panel servesthe purpose of accommodating switches, buttons or other operatingelements for setting an operational state of the refrigeratingappliance, as well as indicating elements giving information aboutoperating parameters of the refrigerating appliance, in a positionreadily accessible to the user.

In order to be able to satisfy the taste of the widest possible range ofbuyers it is desirable for the manufacturers of refrigerating appliancesto be able to offer refrigerating appliances with different appearances,in which connection a particular significance attaches to the door asthe most conspicuous part of the refrigerating appliance. One suchpossibility of modifying the appearance is to make the door so largethat it covers the body of the refrigerating appliance over its entireheight inclusive of a possible control field mounted thereat. Oneconceivable solution of this problem is sketched in FIG. 2. In the caseof a known refrigerating appliance, outer wall 4 and inner wall 5 of thedoor are prolonged up to the height of the upper edge of the body 1 andcovered there by a closure element 6. This solution is unsatisfactoryfor several reasons. Since space is no longer available for the controlpanel, the control elements either have to be directly mounted at thefront edge of the body 1 at the place which in the case of therefrigerating appliance of FIG. 1 has supported the control panel, whichis problematic since in this region the inner container 7 and outer wallof the body 1 adjoin one another, or a completely different location forthe control elements has to be selected, which obliges extensiveconstructional changes relative to the refrigerating appliance of FIG. 1and is correspondingly expensive. In addition, prolongation of the innerwall 5 makes it impossible to produce this by the same deep-drawingtools as the inner wall of the door of FIG. 1, which substantiallyincreases the cost of parallel production of refrigerating appliancesaccording to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2.

FIG. 3 shows another known form of construction of a refrigeratingappliance housing in a schematic section analogous to that of FIGS. 1and 2. This housing is distinguished from that of FIG. 1 in that thecontrol panel 3 is omitted and instead thereof the closure element 6,which connects together the upper transverse edges of outer wall 4 andinner wall 5 of the door 2, is significantly widened so that it is flushwith the upper edge of the body 1. This solution has the advantage thatit can be realised simply and economically, since body and inner andouter wall of the door can be identical with those of the appliance ofFIG. 1 and the differences are substantially limited to the controlpanel 3 and the closure element 6. However, the wide strip which thewidened closure element 6 occupies at the upper edge of the door 2 givesthe appliance of FIG. 3 a high degree of similarity to that of FIG. 1.

The object of the invention is to create a door for a refrigeratingappliance which imparts thereto an appearance differing significantlyfrom that of the appliance of FIG. 1 and which nevertheless can belargely assembled from the same components as the appliance at FIG. 1 orin which the parts inevitably to be changed can be realisedeconomically.

The object is met by a refrigerating appliance door with the features ofclaim 1 and a refrigerating appliance with the features of claim 7.

The door according to the invention makes it possible to cover arefrigerating appliance, the body of which corresponds with that of theappliance of FIG. 1, over its entire height by a door with a continuousouter surface. A conspicuous closure such as by, for example, thevisible control panel 3 of the appliance of FIG. 1 or the widenedclosure element 6 of the appliance of FIG. 3 is eliminated. However, thedoor can be realised very economically, since its inner wall can beidentical with that of the appliance of FIG. 1. Manufacture of the outerwall prolonged relative to FIG. 1 requires only a minimum additionalexpenditure, since it is sufficient to cut off the metal plate, fromwhich the outer wall is formed, at a somewhat changed length, and thesteps of bending the metal plate are the same regardless of the lengththereof. Moreover, it is even now usual in manufacture to cut to sizeand process metal plates for the outer wall of the door in differentlengths, since refrigerating appliances are in general made in a numberof models of different size which differ merely by the height of thedoor, but not by the width thereof. The first closure elementaccordingly bridges over, by its shape, the difference in height betweendoor inner wall and door outer wall. The fastening position provided atthe door inner wall and the mode of fastening for a door seal can bearranged or constructed analogously to that illustrated in FIG. 1.

Through the invention, appliances with a different appearance, namelywith control and/or indicating elements covered or freely accessiblewhen the door is closed, are produced starting out from an appliancehousing by the mounting of different doors, in particular a door inwhich inner wall and outer wall have substantially the same height or adoor in which the inner wall is shortened relative to the outer wall.

Preferably, the first closure element has a stepped cross-section with aportion fastened to the transverse edge of the outer wall, a portionfastened to the transverse edge of the inner wall and a flank connectingthe portions and compensating for the difference in length of inner walland outer wall. The free space created by the step-like protrusionallows, in the case of a refrigerating appliance equipped with a dooraccording to the invention, mounting on the body of a control panelwhich only has to differ slightly from the control panel of FIG. 1 inits depth.

The first closure element can be adapted particularly quickly andeconomically to various differences in length between inner wall andouter wall if it is provided, in advantageous manner, for the flank tobe variably adjustable in its height.

In order to be able to mount a control panel with a vertical front it isdesirable for the flank to be parallel to the front side and rear sideof the door. Moreover, the height of the flank or the difference inlength between outer wall and inner wall should be at least 2centimetres in order to be able to accommodate a sufficiently largecontrol panel.

A second closure element forming a closure, which is opposite the firstclosure element, of the intermediate space is preferably fastened inconventional manner to second transverse edges, which are flush with oneanother, of outer wall and inner wall. This second closure element canthus be identical with a closure element also used for production of adoor according to FIG. 1.

Further features and advantages of the invention are evident from thefollowing description of examples of embodiment with reference to theaccompanying figures, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a schematic part section through a conventionalrefrigerating appliance housing;

FIG. 2 shows a schematic section through a possible modification of thehousing of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows a section through a further conventional housing;

FIG. 4 shows a section through a refrigerating appliance housingaccording to a first embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 5 shows a horizontal section through the door of the refrigeratingappliance; and

FIG. 6 shows a section through a refrigerating appliance according to asecond embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 shows a vertical section through the upper region of the body 11and the door 12 of a refrigerating appliance according to the invention.The body has a multilayer construction, which is known per se, with anouter wall 18 of sheet metal and an inner container 17 of plasticsmaterial, which bound an intermediate space filled with insulating foamand adjoin in the region of a front side of the body 11 at which alsothe door abuts. The boundary region between inner container 17 and outerwall 18 is covered along the upper edge of the body 11 by aschematically illustrated control panel 13 of plastics material, inwhich control and indicating elements for influencing or indicating theoperational state of the refrigerating appliance (not illustrated) arearranged.

FIG. 5 shows a horizontal section through the door 12 abutting the body11. An outer wall 14 of sheet metal and an inner wall 15 deep drawn fromplastics material bound an intermediate space 19 filled with insulatingfoam material. The metal sheet is bent several times in longitudinaldirection in order to form a front plate 20, two lateral limbs 21 andfastening straps 22, which represent longitudinal edges of the metalsheet, to which the inner wall 15 is fastened. Formed at the inner wall15 by deep drawing is an encircling frame, the protruding vertical webs23 of which serve for reinforcing and possibly for the fastening of doorstops. An encircling seal 24 extends along the outer edge of the innerwall 15.

As can be seen in FIG. 4, the inner wall 15 extends insignificantlyfurther upwards beyond the ceiling 25 of the inner container 17, asrequired to enable mounting on the inner wall 15 of the encircling seal24 which when the door 12 is closed bears against a front edge of theinner container 17 or against bent-over portions of the lateral edges ofthe outer wall 18. The outer wall 14 of the door thereagainst extendsupwardly beyond the inner wall 15 so that it virtually completely coversthe body 11.

Compensation for the difference in height between inner wall 14 andouter wall 15 is provided by a closure element 26 which isinjection-moulded from plastics material and which has two horizontalportions 28, which are connected by a vertical flange 27 and of whichone is connected with the upper transverse edge of the outer wall 14 andthe other with that of the inner wall 15, the closure element embracingthe transverse edges in sealing manner relative to the thermalinsulation material to be foamed.

For stabilising the fastening of the closure element 26 to the walls ofthe door the closure element 26 comprises webs or projections (not shownin the figures) which engage in the intermediate space 19 andrespectively bear against a rear side of one of the walls 14, 15 andwhich are glued to the walls 14, 15. Due to the adhesive action of thethermal insulating material the closure elements are connected togetherwith the inner and outer wall to form a structure stiff in shape.

The control panel 13 is fitted in the cut-out bounded by the lowerhorizontal portion 28 and the flank 27. In the state shown in FIG. 4 thecontrol panel 13 is completely covered by the door 12; when the door isopen, it is freely visible and accessible.

The intermediate space 19 of the door 12 is closed at the lower edge,which is not shown in FIG. 4, by a second closure element. Since theedges of the walls 14, 15 are flush at their lower edge of the door 12,this second closure element has the shape of the closure element 6 ofFIG. 1. In order to construct the refrigerating appliance shown in FIG.4, merely three parts differing from the corresponding parts of therefrigerating appliance of FIG. 1 are needed: the control panel, thedepth of which is partly reduced in the case of the refrigeratingappliance according to the invention, the closure element 26 and theslightly prolonged outer wall 14 of the door. All other parts can beused identically for both types of refrigerating appliance.

FIG. 6 shows a modification of the refrigerating appliance of FIG. 4,which is particularly suitable for appliances with a largeconstructional height. In the case of this modification the front sideof the control panel 13 is not vertical, but angled, so that it can bemore conveniently read and used by a user standing in front of it andhaving to look up at it. The cross-section of the closure element 26 isadapted to the modified control panel in that the flank 27 is alsooriented to be at an angle and parallel to the front side of the controlpanel.

1-9. (canceled)
 10. A door for a refrigerating appliance, comprising: anouter wall and an inner wall connected together along longitudinaledges; a first closure element fastened to a transverse edge of saidouter wall and a transverse edge of said inner wall, said first closureelement together with said outer wall and said inner wall delimits aninsulating intermediate space; and said inner wall constructed to beshorter in the longitudinal direction than said outer wall, said firstclosure element bridges the difference in length between said inner walland said outer wall.
 11. The door according to claim 10, including saidfirst closure element having a stepped cross-section with a firstportion fastened to said transverse edge of said outer wall, a secondportion fastened to said transverse edge of said inner wall and a flankportion connecting said first and second portions, said flank portioncompensating for the difference in length between said inner wall andsaid outer wall.
 12. The door according to claim 11, including saidfirst closure element formed from an injection moulding of a plasticsmaterial.
 13. The door according to claim 11, including said flankportion is substantially parallel to the front side and the rear side ofthe door.
 14. The door according to claim 11, including said flankportion compensating for the difference in length between said innerwall and said outer wall is variably adjustable in height.
 15. The dooraccording to claim 11, including the height of said flank portioncompensating for the difference in length is at least two (2)centimetres.
 16. The door according to claim 10, including a secondclosure element which is fastened to the second transverse edges of saidouter wall and inner wall, said transverse edges flush with one another.17. The door according to claim 10, including said first closure elementforms an upper closure of the door.
 18. The door according to claim 16,including said first closure element forms an upper closure of the door.19. A refrigerating appliance including a door, comprising a bodyagainst which the door abuts; said door including an outer wall and aninner wall connected together along longitudinal edges; a first closureelement fastened to a transverse edge of said outer wall and atransverse edge of said inner wall, said first closure element togetherwith said outer wall and said inner wall delimits an insulatingintermediate space; said inner wall constructed to be shorter in thelongitudinal direction than said outer wall, said first closure elementbridges the difference in length between said inner wall and said outerwall forming a space between said body and said first closure element;and at least one of a control or an indicating field mounted at saidbody at the height of said first closure element in said space.
 20. Theappliance according to claim 19, including said first closure elementhaving a stepped cross-section with a first portion fastened to saidtransverse edge of said outer wall, a second portion fastened to saidtransverse edge of said inner wall and a flank portion connecting saidfirst and second portions, said flank portion compensating for thedifference in length between said inner wall and said outer wall. 21.The appliance according to claim 20, including said first closureelement formed from an injection moulding of a plastics material. 22.The appliance according to claim 20, including said flank portion issubstantially parallel to the front side and the rear side of the door.23. The appliance according to claim 20, including said flank portioncompensating for the difference in length between said inner wall andsaid outer wall is variably adjustable in height.
 24. The applianceaccording to claim 20, including the height of said flank portioncompensating for the difference in length is at least two (2)centimetres.
 25. The appliance according to claim 20, including a secondclosure element which is fastened to the second transverse edges of saidouter wall and inner wall, said transverse edges flush with one another.26. The appliance according to claim 20, including said first closureelement forms an upper closure of the door.
 27. The appliance accordingto claim 25, including said first closure element forms an upper closureof the door.